Absolute Defense, Chapter 004 [En]

Yahalo~

New Episode and new character kitta~
Ikki got his new cheat. How can he survive in his second life? Find out more on Absolute Defense~

By the way, I don’t study science. So I’m not sure I describe scientific things in this chapter properly. If you can suggest me with something more appropriate, I’ll be most grateful.

And as always, I don’t guarantee that my English is perfect. There will always be flaws like weird wordings, grammar mistakes, and spelling errors. Be kind to me and point it out. I’ll fix it ASAP.

PS: I added skits to the previous chapters. You can read Skit 1, Skit 2, and Skit 3 if you want.

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Chapter 004 – Deep in The Forest

“Hufh hufh.”

In the middle of the night, deep in a forest; a dark skinned maiden with short white hair is running from her pursuer.

Two young men has been pursuing her non-stop, she can’t even tell how much time had passed since she escaped from them.

“Wait for us bitch!”

“Don’t run from us you piece of shit!”

How can I not run from them, when the price for getting caught is way worse than death? The girl retorted in her mind. She knows that, if she gets caught she’ll be sold into slavery and she can kiss her freedom good bye.

A slave can’t defy their master’s order and if they did defy, they’ll get a severe headache that they wish they were dead. The cause of why they get that headache is because [Collar of Obedience] or [Slave Mark] they are wearing. They can’t even kill themselves, because the collar/mark prevented them to do that. If the master order them to kill themselves, then they don’t have any choice but to die.

And that’s not all, they get treated like a pet. No, they get treated worse than a pet. If pets can get meal 3 times a day, slaves can only get 1 or 2 meals a day, or even don’t get any meal at all for several days and it’s not even a proper meal. When they needed a bath, their master would drown them and then lift them up before they can taste death; or they cast attack magic from [Water] magic at them, leaving them injured or even incapacitated. Such a fate that is worse than death.

Of course she can kill herself right now because her collar hasn’t got a drip of blood from her supposed master. To be a master of slave, one needs to drip their blood on the [Collar of Obedience] or [Slave Mark]. To make [Collar of Obedience] or [Slave Mark], a blood from a monster called Ditiaservadth is needed.

Ditiaservadth is a powerful monster, it has charm attack where it draws its blood out, harden them and then fling them like an arrow toward its enemies. Anyone that has been hit by that attack will felt their freedom robbed and make their bodies a puppet. Of course they still regain their sanity after getting hit by that charm attack, and it’s the thing that made it worst. When Ditiaservadth is cornered and have so many injuries they will do that attack a lot, and that’s what makes the subjugation of Ditiaservadth hard. Someone who wants their materials (blood, hide, bones, etc.) needs at least 12 to 20 veteran adventurers to subjugate it, and the cost of hiring such adventurer isn’t something to laugh at.

And because of the scarceness of Ditiaservadth’s blood, the slave dealer can’t make the slave he caught his ‘slave’ for just a moment. It’s because he needs the same amount of blood needed to make the slave collar to transfer a slave’s ownership to new owner, It’s too wasteful.

‘I need to escape no matter what!’

She became desperate, her breath is disorganized. She’s not even sure if she can escape from them, but still she tried her best.

“Urgh, if that’s the case then. 【O winds, push my enemy down with your power! «Wind Shock»】.”

A gust of wind flies from that man’s hand. He directed that spell to hit the girl’s knee to ensure minimal injury as possible. But unfortunately due to the low visibility, his aim is off and the spell hit nothing instead.

“You’re stupid! What if she falls from the cliff?”

“Shut up! She’s too fast for a lil girl ya know? And it’ll make our job easier if I can make her tumble for a moment.”

“It’ll be the end of our job if the good is damaged! (dead)”

They are now pursuing her in the edge of a forest cliff. The height is below 10 meter, but you’ll get seriously hurt if you fall from it.

‘O Spirits of nature, please protect me’

She prayed to the nature spirits in hope they can help her somehow.

She keeps running from both of her pursuer when suddenly…

“GROAAAAAAARRRR!”

… a roar echoes.

The girl and both of her pursuer got frozen stiff.

“I-it’s Quadrabear! W-we should escape; we can’t win if it’s just the two of us! Q-Quick, cast «Wind Shock» towards that bitch! She should be sufficient enough as a bait.”

“B-but you’ve said that we’ll get fired if we let her die.”

“Shut up! Do you value your life or your job? I’m sure boss will understand that we’re unfortunate to let the good get attacked by a Quadrabear!”

“O-Okay, 【 O winds, push my enemy down with your power! «Wind Shock»】.”

The man aims at the girl in front of him. But, is either the man’s bad luck or the girl’s prayer that his aim is off. The «Wind Shock» he casted can be avoided by the girl by a hair breadth.

The «Wind Shock» hit the bear and enraged it.

It suddenly ran towards them. With its four fore leg and two hind leg its speed is accelerating by the second. The size of the bear is half of the size of a truck. Getting rammed by it sure will fly you off to another world.

The girl just sits in her original place, frozen stiff from fear. Her expression is distorted as if it’s her doom. But luckily, the bear ignores her.

The characteristic of Quadrabear is that when it gets provoked by an attack, it will attack the attacker no matter what and ignore anyone else that haven’t attacked it. It will either ram them, or attack them with its four fore legs.

“Oh shit I’ve fucked up! Run!”

Their face is distorted by fear as the beast gotten close by the second. They know they can’t escape from it, but they will not abandon any hope. They desperately want to live; they’ve been fighting for it after all. They raised in a slum where everything is a matter of life and death. The slum is a dead end from most of its inhabitant but not from them. They crawled out from it, desperately find a job so they can eat even once per day. So much they had to do to continue living. And then they meet that person, their boss. He gave them job. Sure the job is a nasty one, but the pay can make them eat a decent meal, afford a place to sleep, and getting a nice beer in a bar. They want to save their money so they can retire and marry a decent woman, have kids, and work in a farm they bought themselves.

Surely a goal they can never achieve right now.

“Brother, you must go first. I’m the one it targeted!”

“No I can’t do that, you’re my only family John!”

“Stupid! At least one of us is survived!”

The man named John turn around and readied his spell. Chanting an aria that can delay the bear’s movement even for a few seconds.

“Ugh, I can only cast this spell once. Go you fucker!”

He jokingly told his brother to run, and then he smiled bitterly.

“John…”

He can only bite his lip and run straight ahead to the opposite direction of the bear.

“GROAAAA!”

“—, «Exploding Shockwave»!”

His aria can’t be heard because the bear roars as it about to attack him with its claw. But the attack never came, because both of them got thrown off from the wind explosion.

Meanwhile, the girl can only run to opposite direction of the fight between his pursuer and the bear. She hopes that the bear didn’t pursue her, and her pursuer will give up searching for her.

When she sees a river below the cliff, she jumped in hope to minimize the change of her getting caught.

She had successfully escaped.

 

◊◊◊◊◊

 

“So~ what are you wishing for? I’m excited you know?”

Cael-kamisama­­ inquire me excitedly with a smile pasted on his face. You can read my mind you know?

“I deactivate it, it’s no fun when I know what you want doesn’t it?”

“Then how do you know what I was thinking about?!”

“It’s clearly pasted on your face you know?”

“Ugh… by the way, what I wanted to wish for as my cheat is [Parallel Thought].”

Are? Not something flashy like [Herculean Strength] or [Divine Healer]?”

“No, I just want something that can assist me in chanting multiple aria.”

“Okay then~ Alakazam.”

What a plain sounding spell!

I mean do you need a spell for that? You’re a god! Goodness.

“Hey, that’s rude!”

“…”

I’m not going to retort it, goddammit!

“At least give me a respond… I’m feeling lonely here.”

He’s feeling dejected now? I feel bad.

“Uh, I’m sorry.”

“Well whatever~”

He just brushes it off with a bright smile! I bet even a teenage girl that can have PMS everyday would lose in “Mood swing” competition with him.

Oh, he continues.

“As it is a rare skill, I’ll only give you slightly above a normal person can achieve.”

“Meaning?”

“Well~ if it something common like [Fire] or [Water] Magic, I could give you MAX level. But because your chosen skill is uncommon and rare, I could only give you slightly higher level than the average level of all people that have this skill.”

“Ooh, then how much level do I get?”

“I’ll give that skill around Intermediate stage, the level depends on your luck.”

“I hope it’s high.”

“Don’t say that? Do you want to activate the greed meter?” [1]

“D-don’t say it, you’ll raise the flag!”

“Oops~ too late~ Teehee~”

I’ll pray to god that damned meter doesn’t get activated.

Who am I praying to? The god himself raised the flag for me!

Arrgg, I give up…

“By the way, can I test my skill here?”

“You can. But not in this room, kay~.”

Obviously.

Cael-kamisama guide me to a door, and then open it.

What’s behind that door is a vast prairie. So vast that I can’t see the end of it.

I pass through the door. Once I’m outside, I can feel the blowing winds. It’s nice.

By the way, when I say door, it’s more like Doraemon’s [Anywhere Door]. When I looked back. What I see is just a door, no building whatsoever behind it.

“You can test your magic here. Don’t hold back, kay~”

Yosh, I’ll try cast a magic.”

I’ll try to cast multiple of it~

“Before that, what kind of mana I have Cael-kamisama?”

“[Pure Mana]; you’re filled by [Pure Mana] because you’re in god’s realm”

“Huh? That means the element of mana I recover while idling is what I absorb from surrounding mana?”

“Yes.”

He smiled.

“Then, how do I convert it to [Fire Mana]?”

“To convert mana, you need to concentrate where the mana is residing.

Mana resided in specific part inside your body.

For [Fire Mana] it’s in the heart, [Earth Mana] in the stomach, [Wind Mana] in the lung, [Water Mana] in the bladder, and [Pure Mana] in the liver.

First, decide where you going to transfer your mana and decide how much amount of mana you want to convert.
Then you need to decide what mana element you want to convert from.”

I tried what Cael-kamisama­ said. As I’m just a spirit now, I can easily feel the amount of mana I have.

First, concentrating. Trying to feel mana within me. Focusing on those spot that has just been said by Cael-kamisama.

I feel all of my mana element is of [Pure Mana], just like Cael­-kamisama has said.

I tried to convert my [Pure Mana] to [Fire Mana]. The amount I needed is 25% of my max mana. I’m trying to channel my mana from my liver to my heart. The result is my [Pure Mana] is reduced by 25%. [Flamma’s Blessing] is amazing! There’s no mana lost during the conversion.

Now my mana is 25% [Fire Mana] and 75% [Pure Mana]. How do I determine my mana reserve? The answer is ‘intuition’.

I tried to cast a fire spell.

How do I chant an [Aria] if I don’t know any spell?

“Don’t worry Ikki. You can chant the [Aria] however you like. It’s just help you imagine the spell effect anyway~.”

That’s reassuring; and don’t read my mind please.

“Tee~ hee~.”

Sigh.

Anyway, let’s try me some spell~

I raised my right hand and then chant.

“«Combustion reaction! 【Fire】.»”

What I cast is a [Fire] Spell.

Fire comes from a chemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and some sort of fuel (wood or gasoline, in this case [Fire Mana]). Wood and gasoline (fuel in general) don’t spontaneously catch on fire just because they’re surrounded by oxygen. You have to heat the fuel to its ignition temperature to cause combustion reaction. Naturally [Fire Mana] is highly flammable, and because of that its ignition temperature is lower than most fuel.

I imagined the [Fire Mana] rubbing against itself to cause friction. From the friction it’ll generate heat and burn itself.

A [Rune] is appeared above my hand; and from the [Rune] fire is ignited.

It’s a success! [Fire] magic gettodaze! [2]

“What a plain [Aria].”

“Sh-Shut up. I’ll make a cooler [Aria] later!”

The spell I’ve just tried consumed my [Fire Mana] about 20% of it. It’s surprisingly costly.

I decided to convert my remaining [Pure Mana] to [Wind Mana] and fire mana. 50% goes to [Wind Mana] and 26% goes to [Fire Mana]. By the way, the extra 1% is [Pure Mana] I recovered.

My mana is now consisted of 46% [Fire Mana] and 37% [Wind Mana].

Now for the second spell I’ll test my skill [Parallel Though] to cast multiple spell.

I chant the mana of my new magic.

“«Burn everything up! 【Plasma Laser】».”

Now I’ll try to cast a plasma laser! I’ll make this my ultimate magic!

To create a plasma, I imagine the fire that I about to create have a higher temperature than the surface of the earth’s sun. Then I pressurize it with [Wind] magic. And then shoot the flame like a laser beam. The beam rapidly heats and ionizes surrounding gasses to form plasma.

This plasma is of course can one-shot kill a human. I don’t want to imagine it though. Urgh.

I shot 2 [Plasma Laser] from the [Runes] beside me. I can only maintain it for 2 second before my view become hazy. It seems that it consumes a lot of mana; and now I experienced mana exhaustion state.

I staggered. I can’t stand straight and then I fall unconscious.

“Wake up sleepyhead~.”

I wake up on top of a bed.

I am confused, and began to observe my surrounding.

In front of me stood a child with whom I had become familiar…

Shit, It’s not a dream after all.

“Of course it’s not. You’re already dead. The dead can’t dream, you know?”

“Ugh, what happened?”

“You collapsed due to mana depletion.”

“How long I’ve been unconscious?”

“About 1 hours… Oh yeah, your time is almost out. I need to get you out of my realm, or else I can’t reincarnate you and your soul will disperse.”

“Then reincarnate me already!”

“I’m being considerate you know? What if you woke up in the middle of nowhere and get confused? Surely you’ll blame me.”

Ugh, I can’t refute that. At least I can be prepared if I’m conscious.

“Uh. Thanks for being considerate.”

I meekly replied.

“Anyway~ I’ve altered your appearance. It’s necessary because I can’t revive someone with the exact same appearance with their past self before they died. And don’t worry, I don’t change your gender.”

“What a relief. At least I’m still a man.”

“Though I made your body with a high potential.”

“Potential?”

Something seems off.

“Yes~ It lets you acquire more skill easily.”

“It’s that alright giving me so many cheat?”

“Ikki-chi, it doesn’t count~ Don’t sweat over small stuff kay?”

Okay, if you say so.

“Anyway, I’ve granted you with additional skills. It’s [Language Comprehension], [UI Mechanic], and [System Assist].”

And then he proceeds to explain every skill he had given to me.

I’ll omit the long explanation and summarize them, basically it’s like this:
[Language Comprehension] is ability to understand general languages used in Caelard.
[UI Mechanic] is a skill that let you make everything you want have a user interface.
[System Assist] is a skill that will assist you in that world, you can ask about general knowledge to specific information if you’ve already have an access to it. Basically [System Assist] is my assistant.

And all of this bonus skill doesn’t have a level because it is a god’s gift.

Thanks for the useful gifts kamisama~.

“Okay~ Are you ready to get transported to another world?”

“Yes I’m ready!”

“Okay then. «【Transfer Start】». Good Luck~.”

A pale blue light bathed my body. And then my vision shifts.
The familiar room is nowhere to be seen. What’s in front of me is a clear blue sky.

Strange, I don’t feel like there’s anything below me. And my weight seems non-exi—

Wait…

I’m free falling for fuck’s sake!

-To be continued-


Skit: A Heroine and A Weird Tsundere Appeared.

“Whoa, a dark skinned heroine kitta~

“Don’t be too greedy or that girl might not become yours.”

“Shu-Shut up! Don’t raise too much flag for me!”

“Tee~ Hee~”

“Don’t do that!”

“Ahaha~ sorry sorry. Anyway the author did cut off our screen time after all.”

“He’s mad? That’s rare.”

“Nah~ I don’t think so. Probably just for plot development.”

「I-It’s not like I do it for you guys. Do-Don’t get me wrong, kay?」

((Gross!))

“By the way you two. What’s that last line about! This is not “Moon-led Journey” you know!”

“「…」”

“Hey! Don’t run from me you unreliable guys!”


References:

  1. PSO2 Greed meter reference. The PSO2 Greed Meter is something that can detect your greed. If you want a new rare 10+ stars weapon drop. You’ll never have it because greed meter won’t allow you. [back]
  2. Pokemon reference… duh [back]
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